I grew up in Israel. I was educated there. Served it. Studied it. Taught about it. No one knows it better than I do. And there is no doubt. It was built on racism and the destruction of the Palestinian people.

Israel’s change bloc has a new worry after tonight’s exit polls. Netanyahu has no majority, but he has Trump. Ynet’s Itamar Eichner lays it out: 1) Neither bloc has 61 seats. Averaging Channels 11, 12 and 13, Eisenkot’s bloc has 52 and Netanyahu’s has 50. The Joint List and Ra’am together hold 18. 2) That leaves the decision with President Herzog. His office says the mandate will not necessarily go to the head of the largest party. 3) The change bloc fears Netanyahu will push a security escalation to force an emergency government with Eisenkot. Eisenkot has ruled it out and said he would “resign the next day” if it happened. 4) Trump has already intervened once. He posted two endorsements of Netanyahu before the vote. The second came a little more than 24 hours before polls opened. 5) People close to the White House gave one reason for the endorsements: “Netanyahu promised Trump a unity government.” 6) The opposition has a different explanation. They think the endorsement was Netanyahu’s compensation for Trump postponing a strike on Iran until after the US midterms. 7)With the blocs deadlocked, the change bloc expects Trump to step in for Netanyahu again. Meanwhile, Herzog is still waiting for Netanyahu to answer his offer to negotiate a plea deal. In theory Eisenkot has the advantage with more mandates. But Netanyahu has the IDF and Trump and can use war in Iran to outmaneuver the other side. He will do so.

First assault in the integrity of the elections: in Beit Shemesh, a city outside Jerusalem that used to be secular and is now ultra orthodox, locals destroyed ballot boxes and wrote “the Zionist state - rebellion against the kingdom of heaven.” Israel is eating itself.

Nothing reflects the incredible shift to the right in Israel more than this. Aviv Geffen was the symbol of the Israeli left. As a long-haired hippie singer, he was. On 4 November 1995, he sang “Livkot Lecha” at the Tel Aviv peace rally, minutes before Rabin was shot. The song became the anthem of the “candle youth” who mourned Rabin in the square. Ever since, he’s been the face of the secular, Tel Aviv, Rabin-memorial left. Now he has come out in support of Naftali Bennet, a supporter of Greater Israel, more settlements, increasing the size of the IDF, and war with Turkey. There is nothing surprising about this. But it is heartbreaking to see.